Reddy wrote:Ha, that's great. I love it when the dealership's screwup and you can catch them at their game. So there's another example that they target a minimum of $2000 profit on each sale, sometimes $2k on each side.

I'd pretty much agree on this statement -- my '12 SL w/46K miles and down one almost two battery capacity bars netted me $5,362.50 (we save the sales tax against a new car purchase; actual trade-in value was $5K) and would imagine it being listed for $7.5K at a dealer. Although I didn't see my specific car, I have seen others priced similarly with about the same mileage & equipment, etc. What you do run into once they get towards the bottom like this is that more of them will get totaled by insurance companies because repairs would be more than the car is worth so finding a suitable replacement for the check they give you could be a problem -- years ago, when they had the cash for clunkers program we saw a 'value' of $3,500 given for a minivan we had worth maybe $800 tops --- maybe we'll see something similar for 10+ year old EV's (hah, hah) to get those old batteries off the road ...

powersurge wrote:I fully expect that we will have better and bigger batteries that will keep the Leaf going for many year.

I hope you are right, but I don't think it will work out that way.

Nissan has already made the current 30 kWh battery non-interchangeable with 24 kWh cars. Law requires that Nissan stock spare parts for (7? 10?) years, but there is no requirement to store them in optimal conditions. The warranty in fact actually only requires Nissan to bring a battery back up to 9 bars. And in the case of buying a replacement battery, it is no better: warranty for a year -- against defects, NOT aging.

Are you going to buy a battery for $6k that may be 9 bars on day #1 ? Not worry about a battery that may have been sitting in storage for years ? AFAIK, Nissan is no longer producing 24 kWh batteries, so the best case scenario we can hope for is that replacement batteries were produced in early 2017.

Yes, you are correct that Manufacturers may not want to maintain parts for a specific model. However, With the millions of EVs that have and will be sold in the next few years, it seems unreasonable that car manufacturers will be trying to sell "disposable" cars and getting away with it...

We are at the infancy of the EV. I suspect that as more cars in service on the roads start wearing out the batteries, there will be a big push to build-in battery replacement as a part of the car design, and make generic batteries available. No Car brand would be stupid enough to say outright that the millions of electric cars on the road (and the one I am buying today) will be in the junk yard in 5-6 years because they don't want to replace batteries.... It's like saying that you throw away your car when your tires wear out...

I don't presume to speak for all consumers or for Nissan, but I personally am not going to buy an expensive EV unless it either has an excellent track record with the battery (e.g Tesla) or a warranty that provides me with at least 70-80% battery at 10 years and 95% at five years.

Perhaps some day batteries and their BMS will be generic, thus allowing upgrade/replacement decisions as the original becomes inadequate but that day is a long way off -- if ever. The technology improves, and our batteries deprecate.

2013 Model 'S' with QC & rear-view cameraBought off-lease Jan 2017 from N. California with 63.9 Ahr after 22k milesCar is now enjoying an easy life in Colorado

My main concern, like you, is also the longevity of batteries and long long service life... AND IT IS POSSIBLE TODAY>>> I have a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid, with over 100K miles on it, and the battery is still going strong... Just like the reputation of the Prius, that has 10-15 year old cars with the original battery...

Was thinking about grabbing one of the fire sale 2017s out there, but that won't make it work. Good time to buy a used Leaf I guess.Mine has 40,000 miles and still has 12 bars, I would be delighted to buy a car like that for $5,500 (assuming dealer makes $1k on deal)

mtndrvr wrote:Just got a trade in offer for my 2013 S with QC of $4500.

Was thinking about grabbing one of the fire sale 2017s out there, but that won't make it work. Good time to buy a used Leaf I guess.Mine has 40,000 miles and still has 12 bars, I would be delighted to buy a car like that for $5,500 (assuming dealer makes $1k on deal)

I'm seeing more like a $2k dealer profit in my area for used Leafs, which isn't so bad on a $10-15K car but a bit excessive for a $5k car IMO

mtndrvr wrote:Good time to buy a used Leaf I guess.Mine has 40,000 miles and still has 12 bars, I would be delighted to buy a car like that for $5,500 (assuming dealer makes $1k on deal)

I would be delighted to buy a car like that for anything under $7000! Dealers in my area are asking WAY more than that for cars in that mileage range. I see a 2013 SV at 40K miles asking $9000, and a 2014 S at 40K asking $10,000. I know they expect to negotiate some, but that seems like a lot for a car that has the clock ticking on a battery with finite life! What are the auction prices for these cars likely to have been?

mtndrvr wrote:Good time to buy a used Leaf I guess.Mine has 40,000 miles and still has 12 bars, I would be delighted to buy a car like that for $5,500 (assuming dealer makes $1k on deal)

I would be delighted to buy a car like that for anything under $7000! Dealers in my area are asking WAY more than that for cars in that mileage range. I see a 2013 SV at 40K miles asking $9000, and a 2014 S at 40K asking $10,000. I know they expect to negotiate some, but that seems like a lot for a car that has the clock ticking on a battery with finite life! What are the auction prices for these cars likely to have been?

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

cwerdna wrote:Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.